Yunupingu death: Last word from preacher ‘brother’ Jack Thompson

Jack Thompson’s last communication with Yunupingu was a single, whispered word. But it was brimful of meaning.

Yunupingu with Jack Thompson in East Arnhem land in 2009. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Jack Thompson’s last communication with Yunupingu was a single, whispered word. But it was brimful of meaning.

The indigenous leader was with his family in northeast Arnhem Land just days ago when he took a video call from the acting legend and said simply: “Gulkula.”

Gulkula is the Yolngu name the Yunupingu family bestowed upon Thompson when he was ceremonially adopted into the Gumatj clan in the early 2000s. It’s the name of the Arnhem Land sacred site that hosts the annual Garma Festival, founded by Yunupingu in 1999 and which Thompson has ­attended every year since.

Thompson, 82, calls Yunupingu “my brother” and said he was “shattered” by his passing.

“I last spoke to him very briefly a few days ago,” he said. “He was quite weak but he uttered my ­Yolgnu name, Gulkula. I was glad to be able to say farewell to a man who has been a large part of my life for 20 years, one way or another.”

Speaking from his Coffs Harbour home, where he undergoes dialysis three times a week, Thompson paid tribute to Yunupingu as “a man of extraordinary courage and persistence”. “It was evident from his involvement with his people, with the Garma Festival, with all of it. From very early on, he saw himself as a leader, from when he came back from Melbourne where they hoped to make a preacher of him. He was a preacher all right – a preacher for his people.”

At 14, Thompson worked as a jackaroo on a cattle station in central Australia, where he was the only white man working with the Alyawarre stockmen. It inspired a lifelong and passionate connection with First Peoples and Indigenous culture. In 2008, the actor established the Jack Thompson Foundation to support the Homelands Building Program, addressing unemployment and housing shortages in Arnhem Land.

Thompson’s fondest memories of his “brother” are bound up with the Garma Festival, founded as a showcase for Yolgnu culture. “Last year, when Prime Minister Albanese addressed the people there, to see the quite apparent pride in ­Yunupingu was just a delight,” he said. “To see his response to the ­assertion that there would be the recognition of Indigenous people of this country written into the Constitution was just wonderful. He was glowing.

“He understood the importance of Australians as a whole ­recognising the original Australians in our Constitution and that, after all, is what’s at the heart of the voice.”

Thompson said Yunupingu would have been disheartened, though, by “the argument that seeks to take away from Indigenous recognition in our Constitution by turning it into a divisive discussion”.